The ethno-graphy of prices: On the fingers of the invisible hand (1922-1947)

Organization ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franck Cochoy ◽  
Johan Hagberg ◽  
Hans Kjellberg
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Chain Stores ◽  
Self Service ◽  
The Invisible

This article is part of a project examining the long-term process of price display digitalization, ranging from manually written prices to contemporary electronic shelf labels. Based on the etymology of the term ‘digital’ (from digitus, finger or toe), we intend to show that the display of prices in retail settings surprisingly rests on a long-term digitalization process that started in the early 20th century. The study is based on a systematic reading of the trade magazine The Progressive Grocer during its first decades (1922-1947). This magazine assisted independent American grocers in their move from counter-service to self-service, and in facing the challenges of new competitors like chain stores and supermarkets. In this process, the disclosure of prices and their proper writing—their ethno-graphy—was central. We focus on a crucial and transitional period: the move from coded to open prices. This period entailed a double development of price ‘fingerization’ (using the fingers to write the prices) and price ‘de-fingerization’ (getting rid of handwriting thanks to novel price tag and printing devices). Ethnographying these mundane evolutions illuminates the role of the fingers of the invisible hand that animates the market, so to say.

ABOUT CUSTOMS BUSINESS IN TURKESTAN IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19th -EARLY 20th CENTURY

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-47
Author(s):  
Chinpulat Kurbanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stage Development

The author in this scientific article examines the stage-by-stage development and formation of customs in Turkestan in the second half of the 19th -early 20th centuries. The author studied the history of customs in Turkestan and its role in establishing a single customs line in the future with neighboring khanates. The author focuses on the role of Russia in the establishment of a single customs line and the development of customs in Turkestan

An international hierarchy of science: conquest, cooperation, and the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System

2021 ◽  
pp. 135406612110338
Author(s):  
Joanne Yao
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Social Performance ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Antarctic Treaty ◽  
The Antarctic ◽  
International Status ◽  
Antarctic Treaty System

The Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), created in 1959 to govern the southern continent, is often lauded as an illustration of science’s potential to inspire peaceful and rational International Relations. This article critically examines this optimistic view of science’s role in international politics by focusing on how science as a global hierarchical structure operated as a gatekeeper to an exclusive Antarctic club. I argue that in the early 20th century, the conduct of science in Antarctica was entwined with global and imperial hierarchies. As what Mattern and Zarakol call a broad hierarchy, science worked both as a civilized marker of international status as well as a social performance that legitimated actors’ imperial interests in Antarctica. The 1959 ATS relied on science as an existing broad hierarchy to enable competing states to achieve a functional bargain and ‘freeze’ sovereignty claims, whilst at the same time institutionalizing and reinforcing the legitimacy of science in maintaining international inequalities. In making this argument, I stress the role of formal international institutions in bridging our analysis of broad and functional hierarchies while also highlighting the importance of scientific hierarchies in constituting the current international order.

Generations on paper: Bourdieu and the critique of ‘generationalism’

2015 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Semi Purhonen
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Sociological Study ◽  
Karl Mannheim ◽  
Word Generation ◽  
Potential Source

This article first examines the role of the concept of generation in Pierre Bourdieu’s work. It shows that Bourdieu’s usage of the concept of generation varied throughout his œuvre and that Bourdieu seldom if ever used the concept in the same sense as Karl Mannheim and many subsequent sociologists who have understood generation as a potential source of identity and political mobilization. However, and second, the article argues that Bourdieu’s sociology does have much to offer for the sociological study of generations, but only if we stop concentrating on those rare passages in which he explicitly used the word ‘generation’. We should focus instead on his more general approach to the genesis of social groupings, classification struggles and the difficult relationships of representation. The application and extension of Bourdieu’s ideas demonstrated here can provide a welcome antidote to so-called generationalism – a simplified and exaggerated picture of generations, which dates back to early 20th-century European intellectuals and which can still be found in today’s popular discourses as well as in academic studies.

scholarly journals Changes in the strength and width of the Hadley Circulation since 1871

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1169-1175 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Liu ◽  
M. Song ◽  
Y. Hu ◽  
X. Ren
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Hadley Circulation ◽  
Recent Change ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Greenhouse Warming ◽  
Long Period ◽  
The Past ◽  
Period Oscillation

Abstract. Recent studies demonstrate that the Hadley Circulation has intensified and expanded for the past three decades, which has important implications for subtropical societies and may lead to profound changes in global climate. However, the robustness of this intensification and expansion that should be considered when interpreting long-term changes of the Hadley Circulation is still a matter of debate. It also remains largely unknown how the Hadley Circulation has evolved over longer periods. Here, we present long-term variability of the Hadley Circulation using the 20th Century Reanalysis. It shows a slight strengthening and widening of the Hadley Circulation since the late 1970s, which is not inconsistent with recent assessments. However, over centennial timescales (1871–2008), the Hadley Circulation shows a tendency towards a more intense and narrower state. More importantly, the width of the Hadley Circulation might have not yet completed a life-cycle since 1871. The strength and width of the Hadley Circulation during the late 19th to early 20th century show strong natural variability, exceeding variability that coincides with global warming in recent decades. These findings raise the question of whether the recent change in the Hadley Circulation is primarily attributed to greenhouse warming or to a long-period oscillation of the Hadley Circulation – substantially longer than that observed in previous studies.

Kainar: A Late 18th to Early 20th Century Ritual and Housing Complex in the Northern Ustyurt

2022 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
S. E. Azhigali ◽  
L. R. Turganbayeva
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Nomadic Pastoralists ◽  
Permanent Settlement ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stone Carving ◽  
Housing Complex

This is the fi rst description of a key Kazakh recent permanent settlement at Donyztau, in the northern Ustyurt. Such sites, evidencing major historical processes during the transition of nomadic pastoralists to a semi-sedentary lifestyle (mid-19th to early 20th century), are known as “ritual and housing complexes” (RHC). Kainar, a highly representative site, is viewed as a socio-cultural phenomenon and an integral architectural and landscape ensemble. The excavation history of RHCs in the Donyztau area and their evolution are discussed, and the role of ascetics such as Doszhan-Ishan Kashakuly is described. We highlight separate parts of the complex (the settlement and cemetery) and their elements. The architecture of the RHC is reconstructed with regard to structure, function, and continuity with the landscape. The layout of the site as a whole and of the madrasah with its typical elements are compared with those of similar sites in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. A reconstruction of the complex is proposed and the function of public halls is interpreted. The role of the cemetery and of its parts in the structure of the RHC is evaluated; the evolution of its spatial organization is traced. Types of memorial complexes are listed in terms of harmony with the landscape, archaic beliefs, architecture, and style, specifi cally stone carving. The historical and cultural signifi cance of Kainar as a source of knowledge about the transition to a semi-sedentary way of life and the Islamization of the steppe is discussed.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL DOCTRINES OF THE RUSSIAN THEOSOPHISTS OF THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artem I. Shevchuk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Scientific Concepts ◽  
New Era ◽  
Universal Nature ◽  
The Invisible

The article suggests a typology of Russian theosophical anthropological theories of the early 20th century and offers an analysis of the root causes of disputes between theosophists on anthropological matters. Christian theosophists, who were critical about the Orientalist elements of theosophical doctrines, preferred to draw upon the Christian tradition, while synthesizing it with certain theosophical concepts. Russian theosophists, leaning towards the traditional theosophical doctrine, espoused the idea of universal nature of religious anthropology and often preferred the Oriental approach to anthropology. Nevertheless, they had regard to the Christianity and sought to homologate Oriental anthropology with the Christian one. Millennial expectations were common with the theosophists; they believed that a new era was approaching that would result in a change of the human nature. Many of them reckoned that the human nature could be transformed through spiritual practices. Like many other advocates of Esotericism of those times, theosophists engaged scientific concepts to justify their anthropological views and referred to experimental evidences that would allow revealing the Invisible. For all of their differences, theosophical approaches to anthropology had some shared features and reflected the trends that were common in that age

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